Pete Wedderburn

Pete Wedderburn qualified as a vet twenty-five years ago, and now spends half his working life writing newspaper columns. He lives in Ireland with his wife, two daughters and a menagerie of dogs, cats, poultry and other furry and feathered companions. Pete answers readers' queries about their pets' health in his video Q&A – he is also on Twitter as @petethevet and has a Facebook Fan Page.

Why do over 80 per cent of Bulldog births happen by caesarian section?

I'm just back from the annual congress of the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, the biggest "pet vet" conference in the world, which is held in Birmingham every April. It's a knowledge-fest, where academics pass on the latest findings from the scientific community to vets in practice.

Why are so few Bulldogs born naturally? (Photo: Getty)

One piece of research has particular relevance to the ongoing debate on the breeding of pedigree animals. As part of a major survey, carried out jointly by the BSAVA and the Kennel Club, data was gathered on the percentage of litters of puppies born by caesarian section compared to "natural" births. The differences between breeds was quite astonishing.

The caesarian rate in humans has been reported to be approximately 20% of all births in the UK, and around 30% of all births in the USA. The study on dogs looked at 150 breeds. There were seven breeds where the reported caesarian rate was zero ( President Obama's chosen breed, the Portuguese Water Dog was one of these). Most dog breeds had a relatively low rate of caesarians, but twelve breeds were identified as having rates greater than 40%. These included St Bernards at 41.2% and Irish Wolfhounds at 40.3%. Three breeds were singled out as having caesarian rates of over eighty per cent – the French Bulldog at 81.3%, the Bulldog at 86.1% and the Boston Terrier at a remarkable 92.3%.

Caesarian sections are carried out to save the lives of puppies and their mothers when the bitch is unable to pass the pups naturally (and perhaps sometimes pre-emptively because of a fear that she won't be able to give birth naturally). The reason for the inability to give birth is usually that the pups' heads are too big to pass through their mother's pelvic canal. This is a characteristic that is heritable. If breeders chose to breed from dogs with smaller heads (or bigger pelvises), caesarians would be much less common. A difficult birth causes significant suffering to the mother, and any surgery inevitably involves some pain. The high level of caesarians in certain breeds is something that should be addressed as an animal welfare issue.

It would be easy to reverse this trend towards caesarian sections in certain dog breeds. When puppies are registered with the Kennel Club, it could be compulsory that a note should be added to their pedigree, recording whether their birth had been natural or by caesarian section. Breeders would then be to factor this information into their choice of future breeding stock. Over a few generations, selective breeding using easy-birth dogs would be very lik ely to bring about a significant reduction in caesarian rates.

Will the Kennel Club take this type of action? I'm not holding my breath.